On Tuesday, members and supporters of Alabama Arise will gather at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery for their 2026 Legislative Day—an opportunity for the organization to speak with lawmakers and advocate for their policy priorities amid the ongoing legislative session. This year, Arise is approaching their Legislative Day with one goal in mind: winning free school breakfast for every child in Alabama’s public schools.
As Arise hunger policy advocate LaTrell Clifford Wood told APR, the organization’s efforts this year will specifically focus on expanding upon a $7.3 million supplemental appropriation for no-cost breakfast options which state lawmakers passed last year.
“The legislature appropriated a $7.3 million supplemental appropriation last legislative session for no-cost breakfast options,” Wood said during a recent phone interview. “That was the first time that type of appropriation has ever been made to support no-cost school meals, and with that we’ve seen about 2.8 million more school breakfasts served this year than last year. And we know that across the state since 2019, meals access, particularly no cost meals access, has nearly doubled.”
“So what we’re going to be advocating for [this year] is a $14 million appropriation toward the Department of Education’s budget within the Education Trust Fund budget to ensure that this investment continues,” Wood added. “Not only does it continue, but that it’s available across the state to all Alabama public school children.”
Wood explained that currently, access to no-cost school meals in Alabama is often determined by where a student lives, with some counties electing to allocate local funding toward free school breakfast while others do not.
“Our counties are not necessarily equal in terms of how much revenue they can acquire to support [no-cost school meals],” Wood noted. “For example, Baldwin County recently elected to serve no-cost meals options through a federal provision, and they were able to do that in-part because of local funding that was appropriated. And this past year, they were also able to support that with the $7.3 million appropriation that came from the state level.”
“And so I think part of it is whether or not the local authorities are comfortable with the sustainability of electing that federal provision,” she continued. “And as we’re seeing some of the cuts to food access in general at the federal level, it’s really important that at the state level we’re making investments, particularly in our most vulnerable populations.”
As Wood noted, Arise is now looking to push lawmakers to increase their investment in no-cost school meals through a $14 million appropriation in the Education Trust Fund budget—an investment which the organization says would allow every public school in the state to provide students with free school breakfast.
“Yes, so that $14 million appropriation would allow every Alabama school that participates in the National School Lunch Program to allocate that funding,” Wood explained. “So that would be every public school across the state.”
Wood also emphasized that no-cost school meals are not only beneficial for ensuring that students receive adequate nutrition, but that such programs have also been closely tied to improving education outcomes in Alabama. Arise is hopeful that this reality will attract greater support from lawmakers for their proposal.
“I think one of the things that has been interesting is seeing the governor’s focus on a ‘strong start, strong finish’ and this focus on the fact that Alabama has shown more growth in 4th grade math than any other state since 2019, and we’re seeing higher reading and math scores among both students who are experiencing poverty and those who are not experiencing poverty,” Wood told APR. “I’ve come across a lot of lawmakers that—when they hear that—I think there’s a realization that a lot of the investments that we’ve made in education have not happened outside of the variable of allowing no-cost meals access…Between 2019 and 2024, in the same timeline that we’ve seen those increases in scores, we’ve also seen increased meals access, and removing that variable right now, I think is not necessarily something that many of our lawmakers are looking to do.”
“I know that we’ve seen wide bipartisan support in terms of folks going and speaking to [Alabama House Ways and Means Education Committee] Chairman [Danny] Garrett about including this funding in the budget,” Wood added. “And my hope is that we continue to see that, and we see that appropriation made prior to the budget moving to the Senate.”
While Arise remains hopeful that their proposal will materialize into substantial policy change, Wood did note that they have received some pushback.
“I will say that we do hear a little bit of pushback from time to time about the need to address waste or get back to scratch cooking and those sort of things,” Wood told APR. “The reality is that in order for child nutrition staff to be adequately equipped to address waste and prepare less processed foods for our kids, they have to be adequately resourced. That’s a really important portion of things.”
“We also hear like, ‘why are we feeding rich kids? Why can’t their parents feed them?’ and just to re-emphasize that learning outcomes have improved for all of our children, regardless of income, is really important,” she continued. “Because part of it is when children are eating, right? If you have children that are spending over an hour or two on the bus route and then sitting and waiting for class to start, they may not see the same benefits that come with school breakfast, because most research shows that you see the same improvements no matter household income because of the time that children are eating.”
Wood went on to encourage any individuals who may be interested in supporting Arise’s advocacy to become members of the organization, where they can also vote on future legislative priorities. The organization also sends out routine “action alerts,” which inform members of when and how they can take action around specific policies throughout the legislative process—including by participating in Arise’s annual Legislative Day.
